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The Woman Who Gave the Macintosh a Smile (2018)

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Re: The Woman Who Gave the Macintosh a Smile (2018)

#3
post #2

Of course. Everyone should know who Susan Kare is. She's made most of the famous user interface icons - Apple's, Microsoft's, Facebook's. http://kare.com/

Wow. Also did Windows solitaire graphics? How many times have those pixels been displayed around the world? (It's like how the Windows XP bliss wallpaper is one of the world's most viewed photos.)

Re: The Woman Who Gave the Macintosh a Smile (2018)

#4
Past related threads:

The Story Behind Susan Kare’s Iconic Design Work for Apple - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17290055 - June 2018 (48 comments)

Susan Kare designed the suite of icons that made the Macintosh revolutionary - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16883633 - April 2018 (74 comments)

Behind the Icons: An interview with Susan Kare - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12258469 - Aug 2016 (19 comments)

MoMA Recognizes Susan Kare, the Designer of the Macintosh's Original Icons - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9159021 - March 2015 (2 comments)

The Sketchbook of Susan Kare, the Artist Who Gave Computing a Human Face - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7864129 - June 2014 (10 comments)

Classic Mac icon designer Susan Kare takes the stand: live from Apple v. Samsung - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4352627 - Aug 2012 (1 comment)

The Sketchbook of Susan Kare, the Artist Who Gave Computing a Human Face - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3266499 - Nov 2011 (1 comment)

I think there have been others as well...

Re: The Woman Who Gave the Macintosh a Smile (2018)

#5
post #2

Of course. Everyone should know who Susan Kare is. She's made most of the famous user interface icons - Apple's, Microsoft's, Facebook's. http://kare.com/

Probably just nostalgia but man those icons remind me of how fun the internet and computing seemed in the mid late 90’s. Nowadays everything Seems sterile

Re: The Woman Who Gave the Macintosh a Smile (2018)

#6
I love this video of Kare giving an introduction to the Mac interface on "Computer Chronicles" back in 1984 [1]. At first it seems quaint to see how slowly and carefully she explains what we now consider to be basic UI features. But then you realize that for many people in the world, a desktop computer is just as strange and confusing to them now as it was to most people back then. I think some of us (me included) would do well to keep this video in mind when explaining technology to non-technical people.

[1] https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=x_q50tvbQm4

Re: The Woman Who Gave the Macintosh a Smile (2018)

#7
post #5
post #2

Of course. Everyone should know who Susan Kare is. She's made most of the famous user interface icons - Apple's, Microsoft's, Facebook's. http://kare.com/

Probably just nostalgia but man those icons remind me of how fun the internet and computing seemed in the mid late 90’s. Nowadays everything Seems sterile

You aren't alone in that. It's actually prompted me to sit here and reflect on that very thing. Things are definitely too slick and sterile compared to those earlier days of pioneering wonder.

Re: The Woman Who Gave the Macintosh a Smile (2018)

#10
post #5
post #2

Of course. Everyone should know who Susan Kare is. She's made most of the famous user interface icons - Apple's, Microsoft's, Facebook's. http://kare.com/

Probably just nostalgia but man those icons remind me of how fun the internet and computing seemed in the mid late 90’s. Nowadays everything Seems sterile

Honestly a lot of people talk about how much they hate skeumorphism, but in the early '10s when most of the existing vendors abandoned it, it broke my heart and basically destroyed any love I still had for GUIs.

First Microsoft abandoning skeumorphism with Windows Phone 7 (and later Windows 8), then Apple going to war against skeumorphism in iOS 7. That one-two punch just broke me, and it especially hurt when Apple did it specifically because of Susan Kare's history with the company. I've always despised Jony Ive's entire design aesthetic ever since the original iPod came out, but when he neutered iOS my dislike of him became intensely personal.

I still say that if I ever win the lottery and become a billionaire, I'll hire a team to make a proprietary mobile OS just for my personal use that's built around skeumorphism and trying to imitate either iOS 6 or maybe even translate '80s and '90s Mac styles to a touch-first platform.

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